ornament, which was outlined and shaded with a darker blue and heightened with white. [Illustration: Fig. 35.—Venetian Dish. (S.K.M.)] PERSIAN, DAMASCUS, AND RHODIAN WARES. The artistic pottery and tiles of Persia, though forming a large variety, may nearly all be brought under the designation of siliceous or glass-glazed wares, the tin glaze being only met with occasionally in some Persian and Damascus examples, where an unusually white surface was required. All the glazed wares of Persia are highly baked, and are mostly of a semi-translucent character. [Illustration: Fig. 36.—Persian Lustred Ware.] There is the fine copper, ruby, and brown lustred ware, which has sometimes a white and at others a blue ground. The plate (Fig. 36) is an example of this ware. The design on this ware is in the pure Persian character. Another kind, and by far the most numerous, are the wares of a coarse porcelain variety, not only made in imitation of Chinese porcelain, but decorated to imitate the Chinese ware, the ornament being sometimes mixed with Arabian forms; the colour a bright blue on a white ground, and the Chinese marks or signatures being copied as well (Figs. 37 and 38). [Illustration: Fig. 37.—Flower Vase, Persian, with Chinese decoration.] In the reign of the Persian Shah Abbas the Great (A.D. 1586-1628) the route for travellers and merchants from China to Europe lay across Persia, and many objects of merchandise were imported from China to Persia, including great quantities of Chinese porcelain, many examples of which were purchased in Persia that are now in our museums, as well as specimens in abundance of the imitated Chinese variety. [Illustration: Fig. 38.—Persian Water-bottle; imitated Chinese decoration.] The beautiful enamelled earthenware tiles were made with and without the metallic lustre in the days of, and anterior to the reign of, Shah Abbas, but since his time the art has declined, and nothing but a coarse and inartistic pottery has been made in recent times. As a rule the excellence of Persian pottery, like wine, is augmented in proportion to its age. [Illustration: Fig. 39.—Persian Tile; Seventeenth Century.] The picturesque wall tile (Fig. 39) was found in the ruins of the palace of Shah Abbas II. (1642-1666), near Ispahan. It has a blue ground with white embossed decorations and black pencillings, and is lustred. Wall tiles have been in use in Persia from a very early date. Some of them are beautiful in colour, having usually a deep lapis-lazuli blue ground or white. Sometimes the design is complete on one tile, but generally a whole tile has only a portion of the pattern, many tiles being required to make up the complete pattern (Fig. 40). The tiles are made to fit into all kinds of spaces, according to the shape of the wall, and these arrangements have usually a border design. [Illustration: Fig. 40.—Persian Wall Decoration.]